Howling at the Moon!^[credits]

by Atham Z

Lunacy, says it all. We all know that the time of the full moon feels strange. Legend has it that the full moon brings out the worst in people: more violence, suicides, accidents, and aggression. The influence of the moon and behavior has been called "The Lunar Effect" or "The Transylvania Effect." The belief that the full moon causes mental disorders and strange behavior was widespread throughout Europe in the middle ages.

Studies show that more assaults occur around the full moon. More crimes, self and unintentional poisonings and animal bites occur during the full moon cycle as well. There are many problems encountered when trying to study the lunar effect. For example, some studies include "full moon" behaviors that occur a few days before and after the full moon, while other studies include only those behaviors on a single day.

The full moon appears once every 29.53 days. Sometimes there are two full moons in one month. It is possible to have a month without a full moon, but this is rare and can only occur in February. You have to wait until February 2066 for the next month without a full moon. (I guess we are all going to miss that one!)

People remain convinced that the moon must do something. After all, the earth's surface is 80 percent water; the human body is 80 percent water, so a human tidal effect makes sense. Tidal variation in most coastal areas seldom exceeds ten feet. In smaller bodies of water, such as lakes and probably the human body, tides are negligible. Another point is that the tides don't occur just once or twice a month; they occur once or twice a day. What happens at full and new moon is that the earth, moon, and sun are lined up, resulting in higher tides than usual.

A new idea arrives in this theorizing from the discovery that positive and negative ions in the atmosphere have an effect on behavior (negative ions usually favourable, positive the opposite). Positive ions are more abundant when the moon is full. However, the effect is slight compared to major sources of positive ions like air conditioning and air pollution.

The full moon affects many people worldwide causing emotional instability and insecurity. Since the gravitational force of the moon is strong enough to cause the tides, therefore it is possibly changing the gravitational effect on our glands and organs which can affect our moods.

Other effects include the different wavelengths of light coming from the moon, and the full moon's affect on our inner pathogens. The light from the moon is of a different combination of wavelengths and strength of light than what the sun gives us. It is known that different colors of light cause different emotional reactions. It could be that the moon's silvery colour is at least partially responsible for some people's reactions. Also, we have inner pathogens including yeast, worms, parasites, virus, and bacteria. Perhaps the day to night gravitational change causes a change in the activity of these pathogens, maybe increasing their activity which in turn increases their drain on our nutrients and increases the number of byproducts they excrete into our bloodstream.

Why the full moon affects some people more than others is another question. It may be because some people have borderline glandular functions or some have more pathogens. The most likely pathogen that contributes to the full moon effect is yeast. Too much yeast causes a reaction in people by causing them to feel 'stressed out' because of the loss of normal digestion and increased level of toxicity in the blood.